Category Archives: Legislature

Hutchinson’s ham and egg election

Elections, Health care, Legislature, Politics, State government

Gov. Asa Hutchinson
Gov. Asa Hutchinson
By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

You know that old saying about the difference between ham and eggs? The chicken is involved but the pig is committed. Gov. Asa Hutchinson was both during this year’s primary elections.

With the presidential race, he was merely involved. He endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio for president eight days before the vote. He made a couple of appearances and a TV commercial. Donald Trump won Arkansas. Rubio was third, which he was going to be anyway.

Hutchinson, however, was committed in the state legislative races, where his political action committee, ASA PAC, donated money to eight Republican candidates who had Republican opponents.

This happened because the eight he supported also support, or at least would consider supporting, Hutchinson’s Arkansas Works. That’s the continuation of the private option, the state program that uses federal Medicaid dollars through Obamacare to purchase private insurance for adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Created in 2013 by Republican legislators and Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration, it now covers 200,000 Arkansans. It brings a billion dollars in federal money to the state’s economy annually and has saved hospitals from providing millions of dollars in uncompensated care. But some Republicans are opposed because of its association with Obamacare, because it’s another government entitlement, and because they say neither the state nor the country can afford it.

Because it involves spending money, it requires a three-fourths vote for passage every year, which means nine senators can kill it. It barely reached three-fourths in 2013 and in 2014.

In 2015, Hutchinson persuaded legislators to accept a truce: Fund the private option through 2016, when it would end, and he and a task force would look into creating something else. That alternative is Arkansas Works, which is like the private option except that it requires a bit more personal responsibility on the part of beneficiaries. He says it’s a real change. Opponents say it’s cosmetic.

Hutchinson says Arkansas needs it. His budget depends on it. He doesn’t want to take insurance from 200,000 people. He needs $50 million in extra money for highways so the state will be eligible for $200 million in matching federal dollars. Take away the private option, or Arkansas Works, and that money’s hard to find without a tax increase, which isn’t happening.

On April 6, legislators will meet in special session to vote on Arkansas Works, or something. It can pass with a simple majority, which isn’t that high a bar. Then they’ll meet in the fiscal session, which occurs every even-numbered year, to vote on funding. And because a three-fourths majority will be needed, that session could be a doozy.

Arkansas Works was a central issue in those eight Republican primaries, which left Hutchinson a choice: Do nothing so as not to offend the potential winners; get involved like the chicken; or be committed like the pig. He was committed. He openly supported candidates. He held a press conference defending them. His political action committee gave each of them $5,400.

His job would have become much harder had those candidates lost. While the winning candidates would not take office before the special session, the current legislators would see Arkansas Works as a losing bet. Then Hutchinson next year would be dealing with as many as eight new legislators he’d worked to defeat.

Instead, six of the eight won, including all three in the Senate, where Hutchinson has no votes to spare. On the House side, three of his five candidates won, and one who lost was challenging an incumbent, Rep. Josh Miller, R-Heber Springs. Miller was already in the House, so Hutchinson’s situation didn’t change there.

The next day, Hutchinson addressed the Political Animals Club at the Governor’s Mansion. His mood was not quite jubilant, but it was definitely somewhat north of relieved.

“I think everybody in this room knows that if those three state senators had lost their race, it would not be a pleasant day for me in this room,” he said. “I would have to be explaining. It would have been considered a referendum on me and my leadership.”

Yes, it would have been, in a way that the presidential race was not. He was merely involved with Rubio for eight days, but he’s staking a big chunk of his first term as governor on Arkansas Works. That’s commitment.

Related: Coming health care debate a “cage fight,” says leading legislator.

Presidential and private option politics

Legislature, Politics, State government

Hand with ballot and boxBy Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Primary elections were moved this year from May to March 1 to give Arkansans a voice in the presidential election and to help former Gov. Mike Huckabee win an early state. The more important result will be that state lawmakers will make a lot of decisions about Arkansas’ future with an election in their rearview mirrors instead of in their windshields.

Legislators wanted Arkansas’ primary to occur earlier in the election calendar, on the same day as votes in other states in the South, to create an “SEC primary.” With contests in 11 states across the country, Republicans will award 595 delegates – a fourth of the total. The big prize is Texas, with 155 delegates, while Arkansas will award 40. Democrats will award 957 delegates – again, Texas leads with 252 votes, while Arkansas has one of the smallest totals with 37.

The move appears to have achieved its goals. Arkansas is relevant, or is at least among a relevant group of states, so it’s warranted a few visits from candidates, if that means anything. It won’t help Huckabee, who has suspended his campaign, but, among the Democrats, it does help the state’s former first lady, Hillary Clinton. At least Arkansas is in the game, though mostly watching from the bench.

More important is what’s happening in state politics. During even-numbered election years, the Arkansas Legislature typically holds a fiscal session early in the year to vote on budget-related issues. Because of the early primary, that session was moved to April, after the primary. Meanwhile, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has announced plans to call two special sessions, one to vote on health care reform that will occur shortly before the fiscal session, and one to vote on his highway funding proposals.

The highway session will be big but not huge. Hutchinson has proposed a plan to increase highway money using a variety of means, including shifting some dollars from the state’s general revenue budget, but without raising taxes. There will be shouts of anguish from those who might be affected, but the average Republican primary voter won’t be mad.

The health care special session, however, will be a doozy. Legislators will vote on a package that will include Arkansas Works, which is Hutchinson’s version of the private option with important but not earth-shattering changes.

The program, whatever it’s called, uses federal dollars to purchase private health insurance for Arkansans with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level. It’s been hugely controversial since it was created in 2013 because it’s an extension of Obamacare passed by legislators who decided Arkansas might as well get its share. Unlike some states that turned down the money, Arkansas’ uninsured adult population has been more than cut in half, 200,000 people have health insurance, and its hospitals are providing a lot less unpaid care.

Republicans either don’t like it or, often, don’t like saying they’re for it. Its roots are in Obamacare, which is enough for many voters to oppose it. Opponents say it’s unsustainable. Sometimes, candidates sincerely oppose it on the campaign trail, but then they come to the Capitol and, seeing the numbers, decide they have to support at least something.

The health care special session is occurring in early April-ish because of the federal government’s timelines. Then we’ll have the fiscal session starting April 13, where legislators will vote to spend the money. Had the primaries not been moved, candidates would have had to vote for the private option in the special session, and then fund it in the fiscal session, and then campaign in a Republican primary. Naturally, their opponents would have accused them of selling out to President Obama.

Now, they can finesse the issue on the campaign trail and then come to Little Rock to vote on Arkansas Works – either as newly re-elected incumbents or as defeated lame ducks with nine months left to serve and nothing left to lose.

Presidential politics is what drove this decision to move the primaries, but at least some legislators were also thinking about private option politics.

Of course, if several legislators who support Arkansas Works lose March 1 to private option opponents, it will affect others currently on the fence. They won’t want to be losers next time.

So politics would have been involved no matter when the primary would have occurred. Oh, well. It’s a democracy, after all.

Steve Brawner is an independent journalist in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.

It’s the social issues, stupid

Elections, Legislature, Politics, State government

A pro-life supporter expresses his opinion at the Capitol in Little Rock during the March for Life January 17.
A pro-life supporter expresses his opinion about Planned Parenthood at the Capitol in Little Rock during the March for Life January 17.
By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Current events are demonstrating that what moves political elites and what moves normal people often are two different things.

The big debate among the political elites is over the size and role of government, particularly regarding the economy. That’s why they donate hundreds of millions of dollars to an establishment candidate like Gov. Jeb Bush who promises to cut spending and taxes, and why they assume, like I did, that Donald Trump would eventually go away. As President Clinton’s 1992 campaign said, “It’s the economy, stupid,” right?

Well, not always. What really moves people often are social and cultural issues: guns, gay rights, abortion, etc. Economic issues are mostly about what people do. Social issues are about who they are.

The prevailing national example of this reality is this year’s presidential race, where Trump is driving conservative elites crazy because he’s never been one of them. He has a history of supporting liberal and moderate political positions and has given money to many Democrats, including the Clintons. During this campaign, he’s not really talking that much about cutting government, the Republican elites’ favorite topic.

But he’s established a connection with many voters talking about illegal immigration, which for elites is merely an economic issue but to average people is also a social and cultural one. He’s going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. That’s not an economic policy. And he’s made political correctness, which is definitely a social issue, part of his campaign by pushing the envelope with his words time and again and never apologizing for it.

Closer to home, on Sunday, thousands of Arkansans opposed to abortion participated in the annual March for Life at the Capitol. They carried handmade signs. They prayed. They donated money to Arkansas Right to Life, which has won a lot of victories in recent years and will push this next legislative session for a ban on dismemberment abortions, where the fetus is torn apart and then extracted from the womb.

Thousands of conservative Arkansans do not march on the Capitol to cut the capital gains tax.

This upcoming Saturday, the Arkansas Coalition for Reproductive Justice will respond with a pro-choice rally. Because this is Arkansas, and because abortion is already legal, there won’t be thousands of participants. But, weather permitting, there will be hundreds.

During the 2015 legislative session, the most far-reaching public policy debate was over Arkansas extending the private option, the program that uses federal dollars to purchase health insurance for 200,000 lower-income individuals.

But what really grabbed everyone’s attention was the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which some saw as an effort to protect religious belief while others saw it as a tool for discrimination against gays. Activists chanted “Shame on you!” at legislators and then lined the steps inside the Capitol. Corporate interests like Wal-Mart also were opposed. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who initially supported it, sent it back to the Legislature when it reached his desk, and a milder version mirroring federal law was passed.

With economic issues, a lot of people care a little. With social issues, a few people care a lot. In politics, the second is often more powerful than the first. In an October CBS News/New York Times poll, 92 percent said they support background checks for all gun buyers, but Republican candidates know the other 8 percent will base their votes on that issue alone. So no background checks for all gun buyers.

While compromise is doable when it comes to economic issues, it’s very difficult with social ones. If one side says a tax should be 10 percent and the other 14 percent, the two can meet in the middle. With social issues, where the debate is over absolute right and wrong, finding the gray middle ground is harder. Then those deep-seated social divisions bleed into other areas. Elected officials can’t make the difficult compromises needed to balance the budget, for example, after the trenches have been dug over gay rights and guns.

I guess it doesn’t matter that much. Few candidates are seriously talking about balancing the budget, anyway. Maybe they would, if someone could figure out how to turn it into a social issue.

Dividing the divisive King-Lee holiday

Legislature, Politics, State government

Gov. Asa Hutchinson
Gov. Asa Hutchinson
By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson is still at the point in his young administration where legislators tend to give him much of what he wants, so it will be interesting to see if he gets this: separating the state’s commemorations – this year on Jan. 18 – of the birthdays of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

In response to a question during a press availability in his office Jan. 6, Hutchinson left no doubt where he stood on the issue, which flared and then faded in the 2015 legislative session. “It’s important that that day be distinguished and separate and focused on that civil rights struggle and what he personally did in that effort,” he said of King.

Hutchinson said lawmakers should vote to separate the holidays when they meet in their next regular session in 2017. “As to this year, I’m certainly going to be celebrating Martin Luther King’s special day. I’ll be attending Martin Luther King events and celebrating the great contributions that he has made to this country,” he said.

He did not say anything about Lee.

The legislation last year to give King his own holiday was pushed by Reps. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, and Rep. Nate Bell of Mena, then a Republican and now the Legislature’s only independent. Asked last January about the issue when he was still brand new in his office and was looking at a very full plate, Hutchinson said, “I haven’t thought about it, so I’d have to give it some more thought. History is important to me, and we’ve just got to balance those, obviously,” according to the Associated Press.

As the legislative session continued, Hutchinson did support separating the commemorations but focused on other issues, such as his tax cut package and the private option, the controversial government health care program that today purchases private health insurance for 200,000 Arkansans.

Clearly, Hutchinson is more willing to confront the issue now. On July 7, 2015, he wrote in a letter to Dale Charles, president of the Arkansas NAACP, “The acts of violence in Charleston have sparked national debate on numerous issues. In Arkansas, the state’s dual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and General Robert E. Lee on the same holiday has reemerged as an issue that must be addressed. As Governor, I will do what is in my power to strive for an exclusive Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as well as develop a strategic plan with valuable stakeholders, including the NAACP and state legislators.”

Hutchinson is sensitive to issues that affect Arkansas’ image and could affect its economic development efforts. Last year, he originally supported the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which, depending on your perspective, either defended the consciences of traditional believers or allowed for discrimination against homosexuals. When a national firestorm erupted and businesses like Wal-Mart expressed their opposition, he sent the bill back to the Legislature so that a new one could be written that attempted to split the difference by mirroring federal law.

There has been no such firestorm with the King-Lee holiday, but there could be someday. Arkansas is one of only three states, the others being Alabama and Mississippi, that combine the holidays. Even Lee’s beloved home state of Virginia separated the days in 2000. Regardless of the intentions, Arkansas’ pairing, which occurred in 1985 two years after the King Holiday was created nationally, seems like a poke in King’s eye. It’s like the state is saying, “Yes, we’ll give the civil rights leader his day, along with the rest of the nation. But we’ll also honor the Confederate general, just to make it clear that we’re not 100 percent sold on this.”

The King Holiday is meant to bring people together. In Arkansas in 2015, its pairing with Lee’s birthday was a source of division. Is the answer therefore to divide the holiday, with one day remembering King and another recalling Lee? It could be after the Legislature meets in 2017.

Related: The Confederate star on Arkansas’ flag: a history lesson, or a celebration?